


Matching Sets

by themisguidedgh0st



Series: Waiting Patiently [2]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Complete, F/F, Fairly short, First Meeting, but like not really sad, fluffy but also sad for carm, waiting patiently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:26:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themisguidedgh0st/pseuds/themisguidedgh0st
Summary: Second Work in my Waiting Patiently AUThis is the one where Carmilla and Laura first meet.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Dr. Karnstein, this is Nurse Perry, coming to room 415 with a wheelchair. Kirsch is setting up a surgery room just in case...Dr. Karnstein?""Uhh...also, I knocked someone out?""WHAT?""Also an aspirin if you will"





	Matching Sets

March, 2014:

You stand stiffly in scrubs and the long Doctor's coat waiting impatiently for the _damn_ elevator. "Dr. Karnstein in Styria...huh" you mused to yourself, starting to fiddle with the nametag pinned to your white coat.

"Thank god you dressed sensibly. For a second I thought I'd have to send you back home to force you to drop those dreadful leather pants. Honestly dear, your obsession with leather is a little unhealthy."

The sharp voice and calculating tone that was laced with false care belonged to your mother, a renowned doctor in Styria, Dr. Lilita Morgan. Her name was originally Morgan-Karnstein but she dropped it when your father passed away. Your name, however stayed Carmilla Karnstein. Well, your mother may have preferred Mircalla, but your father liked the anagrammed Carmilla.

You don't really give a verbal response, but it seemed like there was none needed. Your mother just kind of kept going. "Now I know you had your methods in the States, but things here are under my care, so they're run a little differently."

You barely nod before she barrels on right ahead. "You're doing your surgical residency here, under Dr. Bauer. Have you seen him yet for a pre-exam boost? Of course not, you're not really known for being pro-active."

She changed the topic before you could even take a breath to respond. "Now Mir-Carmilla dear, I'm going to hold a meeting first, so you get to meet the other doctors and some nurses. Most of the nurses here are interns, but there are a couple regulars that will be able to help you transition a little more smoothly."

You try nodding, but before your head moves a millimeter, she's speaking again "Of course you know your darling brother Will and of course Mattie are here, so if you need anything and can't find me or Bauer, just find them. Or page them."

_Ding!_

You let out a breath as you and your mother enter the elevator. It wasn't really supposed to mean anything, it was just a breath of air, even you didn't think about it, but of course your mother took offense.

"Honestly Carmilla, why the attitude? You're the one that wanted 'away' from the States. Styria's as far as it gets! And for god's sake those bangs! Are you 12?"

You will the elevator to move faster but it ignores you. Your mother continues to badger you in this fashion until you reach the fourth floor.

She leaves first, addressing the receptionist at the desk "Kirsch, send out a general staff email, meeting 10 minutes, make sure Dr. Luce and Dr. Belmonde are available. They should be, I checked their schedule."

Your mother walked ahead, without waiting for you to catch up. You decide to take a look around Silas Care and it's actually really nice. It looks cozy and the elderly who home here seem to really enjoy relaxing and talking amongst themselves.

You walk past the reception desk where you're aware of the dude-bro drooling in your direction, to what seems to be a common area. You see a doctor with short orange hair is mixing their patient's medicine with test tube vials and grinning manically. Your eyes widen a bit before you duck out of there and visit a few more quieter rooms where patients are reading, watching T.V, playing a video-game, playing foosball, etc.

You may never actually admit it to your mother, but you missed the coziness feeling that comes with home. Silas Care definitely gave you that feeling. You had a feeling good things would happen here.

"Carmilla, why are you just standing around staring into space? Come in here already, you're making a weird scene."

Well, maybe good things would happen if your mother got off your back once in a while.

 

* * *

 

 

"Good Morning, my wonderful staff, now we have several items to cover today before the night shift can go home and the day shift can get started so the first order of business is a new doctor, Dr. Karnstein. She'll be completing her surgical residency under Dr. Bauer. She'll be joining Dr. Luce and Dr. Belmonde during their day shift"

You awkwardly wave at the strangers and your two siblings. Mattie gives you a small smirk and Will gives you a giant grin.

"Hey Kitty" He snickers for good measure.

You growl at him. His grin widens.

Your mother continues, ignoring the exchange "Carmilla, this is Nurse Lola Perry, Nurse Theo Straka and the interning nurses Wilson Kirsch, Laura Hol-"

Your mother stopped abruptly "Where is Miss Hollis? I was under the impression that she was supposed to be in by 8 am?"

The dude-bro from reception pipes up "Yeah, Laura's sort of at home taking a nap. She took Adam's night-shift because he got sick. She'll be here in like, an hour."

Your mother pursed her lips "Fine. Carmilla, I guess you'll meet her later. You know William and Matska, you may not know Dr. LaFontaine. Doctor, please wave your hand around. Dr. Bauer, of course."

You note that the doctor with the short orange hair from before is Dr. LaFontaine. They wave their hand at you "They/Them pronouns please". You nod to acknowledge their request.

Your mother nods "Now that we've wasted away our time, let's get to brass tacks. William, Mattie I need you to especially look over a patient at different intervals and then I want a separate full scale report from each of you. Mr. Franz has been experiencing severe pain but is for some reason unable to properly locate where and when he does there's no sign of any kind of swelling in the area. I'm not a fan of giving him pain reliever for no reason, especially if he's lying so at Noon today, Will I want a checkup from you. At 4pm today, Matska you will go see him. Bring your reports to me, we'll conduct a report together."

You see them nodding their assent. Your mother glances around briefly before continuing "Kirsch, I need you intramural today because Perry and Straka will be visiting Mr. Bert and Mrs. Sherry respectively at their homes. We'll be low on nurses in the Care today so when she comes in, Miss Hollis will be joining you."

Kirsch nodded as well before scribbling in his notebook. "Good. Sarah Jane mentioned some night walking from the east wing though she couldn't really catch anyone, so whenever you can, give a general warning to our regular rule-breakers."

Everyone nods at this point.

"Carmilla, though this is your first day, and you should be tagging along with Dr. Bauer, he just worked a surprise night shift and needs some rest so he'll be headed home. Just walk around. You're going to be sort of like a nurse for the day. Get a feel for the schedule"

You nod, thinking that just getting a feel would be a good thing for a first day.

 Your mother picks up a file from in front of her "Good. Any questions, any problems?"

Not a word.

"Good. Any last words, Dr. Bauer?"

Your mentor shakes his head in the negative and your mother gives some wise parting words "Good luck, please don't kill any of our patients."

The meeting room becomes empty pretty quickly after that. You're left alone in the room with some spinning chairs.

 

* * *

 

 

The current conference room you were in were left with only spinning chairs and flat screen television that had the schedule for the day with all the nurses' timings on it. When you glance at it, you notice that the work seems to be evenly divided.

Your mother certainly did not seem to pick favorites. Well, at least it seemed that way. Glancing again at the schedule, you notice that the missing nurse, Nurse Hollis was supposed to be checking up on a Mr. Wagner around now.

You shrug and think that you might as well become useful while the nurse is out cold. You wash your hands and put on a pair of gloves and walk back to the reception area where you see the ginger nurse gathering files rapidly.

"Excuse me, could I have Mr. Wagner's file please. I'd like to check up on him while Nurse Hollis is still out."

The ginger looked up "Ah! You must be Carmilla."

You sigh "Must I be?"

"Glad to have you, just give me a second, I'll just get into Laura's pile...Ah. Here it is. Old Wagner. Three floors up and his room is just down the hall."

You mumble a thanks.

"Oh Carmilla, fair warning, his room tends to get a little...much...for your nose. You may want to bring an air freshener with you"

Without turning back, you raise the file in your hand as acknowledgement as you walk towards the elevator.

Mr. Wagner. Age 84. Early onset Alzheimer's Disease. Also a malfunctioning liver. _Nice._ A year ago, he had a massive hernia, and subsequently was in a wheelchair for a while. Nothing different in the past few months. Today was supposed to be a regular check-up.

Alright. Wagner was supposed to be easy. You should be able to manage this quite nicely. First days shouldn't have too many mess ups.

 _Ding._ Stepping out of the elevator and walking all the way down to room 415 where Wagner was located, you continued to read his file. He seemed to be getting worse with his Alzheimer's and his relatives were visiting less frequently. You made a mental note to call them in for a brief conference to discuss visiting hours.

Arriving at 415, you notice that the room seemed quite spacious compared to the rooms you'd seen in the States. It gave you an odd sense of comfort. The door was ajar, but you knocked anyway.

"Yes, come in!"

Walking in, you see a simple room set-up. There was a bed, a small television set and a poster of the Beatles that was frayed at the edges.

The old man who you assumed to be Mr. Aldus Wagner was sitting near his window listening to the radio at a low volume.

"Mr. Aldus Wagner?"

"Hello my dear! Have a seat!" The old man grinned at you disarmingly.

 The 84 year old seemed emotionally and mentally spry for his age. "Why thank you. I'm Dr. Karnstein. I'm just gonna ask you a few questions. Just to see how you're doing today, alright?"

"You remind me of my grand-daughter. She's turning 4 in August, you know! In fact she'll be back from school any minute now."

"Wow, that's amazing. So  just correct these statements if there is some miscommunication, alright?"

Exuberant nodding from the old man.

"Your name is Aldus Wagner and in October of 2014 you'll be turning 84. Is that correct?"

He nods again.

"Alright, I've definitely got the right file. Now let's get to the real exciting stuff. When was the last time you had your bowel movements, sir?"

"Oh just a few hours ago. A real doozie!" he chuckled afterwards.

You sighed to yourself and continued the questioning.

Once that was well and done and you had completed the necessary reporting on the man, you stood up to bid him goodbye, but he interrupts your thought process.

"You know they usually send in a different one. She's a little ball of sunshine, but with you, they've got a matching set!"

He stands up suddenly and your hands automatically reach out to grasp him if he falls.

"Careful there, sir. Wouldn't want you to harm that disk again, would we? Well, you're right anyway. Today is my first day. I was just getting used to the system around here."

"You know, my grand-daughter's learning how to dance! She has her first competition in a month! Imagine that!"

You almost smile yourself at look of the grinning grandfather who was chuckling and swaying side to side mimicking his grand-daughter's dance moves.

Suddenly he grasped at his side. "Ahh...Ah...AHhh!" He crumpled to the floor in clear pain and you immediately paged a nurse "This is an emergency. A patient is down, I need a wheelchair and a room with a bed immediately." You knelt down immediately to help him to the nearest chair.

Your immediate thought was a hernia, but you couldn't be certain without proper examination.

"Sir I'm going to need you to tell me where exactly it hurts, okay? I need you to point it out to me, alright?"

A beep came through your pager, but you ignored it, focusing on Mr. Wagner. He pointed awkwardly behind him.

You had somehow managed to get Mr. Wagner leaning heavily against a chair, but steady. His pain seemed too unbearable for him. You turned to get outside to get help but suddenly there was a rush of golden honey-brown hair and

_CRACK!_

"Ow, what the hell, watch where you're headed goddammit! How could you possibly not see-"

You seemed to be speaking to empty air. No. There was a girl in a heap on the floor right in front of you.

Someone else crumpled to the floor  right in front of you. You ignored the fact that the girl that you knocked was cute and you ignored the throbbing pain in your forehead.

Mr. Wagner was still in pain. You paged the nurses' station again "This is Dr. Karnstein. I have a patient in pain, he needs a room, a wheel-chair and also..."

"Dr. Karnstein, this is Nurse Perry, coming to room 415 with a wheelchair. Kirsch is setting up a surgery room just in case...Dr. Karnstein?"

"Uhh...also, I knocked someone out?"

"WHAT?"

"Also an aspirin if you will"

 

* * *

 

 

"You knocked out one of my nurses?"

You somehow forgot that the worst thing about this entire situation was your mother.

She stares at you.

You gulp.

"You had a patient in intense _pain?_ So much so that he couldn't even be examined immediately after?"

Second gulp.

"Did I mention that you _knocked out a nurse,_ Mircalla?"

 _Mircalla._ Oh boy. Third gulp.

"A nurse that was coming to help you, no doubt?"

You could hear your own blood pumping through your veins.

Fourth gulp.

"Seriously, you've now ensured that the nurses we have on staff today have to work twice as hard as normal. They have to take up more duties, _because of you_ "

Gulping intensifies.

"Wasn't her fault. She didn't know I was coming."

Your mother turned around. It seemed Nurse Hollis had awoken and heard the entire conversation.

_Wonderful._

Your mother faced you once again "Who is tending to Mr. Wagner at this moment?"

"William"

Mother pursed her lips. "See to it that Miss Hollis is okay. I need her fully functional by the evening, Carmilla, or there you can find yourself back in the states again without a job."

Fifth gulp.

She turns and leaves you alone with Nurse Hollis.

Hollis stares at you with a small, wry grin. "Well. This was an interesting way to meet. You have a really hard head, you know"

You snort "With your body mass index, a sneeze could knock you out."

She smiled at you, fully and for some reason you couldn't find it in yourself to not smile back. There was just...something about her.

"Laura, babe are you in here? Kirsch called me and said you were hurt so I came rushing over. You know you should always be careful. I mean there's no telling what could happen to you out there, so-"

Moment broken, you looked towards the door, where the voice was coming from. A gigantic ginger tree walked in and brushed beside you immediately racing towards Hollis.

The smile dissipated from your face so quickly that you weren't sure it was there in the first place.

_Of Course. Why did I even consider otherwise?_

"Oh, hey Danny. I'm fine. Just a bit of a chin bruise. I bumped into Dr. Karnstein on my way to help a patient."

Her girlfriend seemed to be giving you a death glare. You gave her your fakest smile.

Luckily, her attention on you was short because her girlfriend was right in front of her. You mutter something incoherently while looking anywhere but at Nurse Hollis.

Her girlfriend was tending to her and fussing over her safety, so you slipped out and walked toward the surgery room where William was tending to Mr. Wagner.

You angrily think about what Mr. Wagner said earlier. He thought you guys would be a matching set.

_Please. As if._

You removed your gloves and got a fresh pair and decided to ignore everything that happened today. Your job was to take care of your patients. You weren't supposed to be attracted to your colleagues.

You slipped up today.

You wouldn't tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

Besides. Your job of taking care of people trumps everything.

You hear another giggle from Nurse Hollis' room.

_Everything._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually open to suggestions for this AU. So please let me know what you think!


End file.
